A year ago, we started brainstorming a new studio website and asked ourselves what the true core of our work was. The answer was "exclusively publishing" and lots of "book covers." For many, many publishers.

So we decided to do something unusual and take a risk. While most graphic design portfolio websites are mere showcases displaying only the best works, we decided to include the "good" and "average" ones too (which, after all, represent the real daily grind). Meaning, not just the top ten most successful pieces, but 70% of everything we have designed over twenty years.

Advanced Portfolio Filtering and Interactive Web Design

In this custom digital archive, you will find nearly 3,000 book covers and a curated selection of editorial design projects. It is not just a digital storefront or a virtual business card; it's a way of thinking and even an interactive game.

Projects can be searched and filtered by color, typographic style, category, or specific keyword. You can see exactly how many covers feature the "Garamond" typeface, which ones are strictly "red," which utilize photography, or those drawn by a specific illustrator. But it is also possible to search for abstract conceptual words like "love," "war," or "bread" and see what visually comes up.

Tracking the Evolution of Editorial Design

From novels to essays, from academic publishing to trade books, you will see a subtle watermark of how bookstore tastes have evolved over time. For example, you will notice that in the early 2000s, photography was the dominant trend for fiction, whereas today, custom illustration is highly preferred.

Instead of simply uploading our design portfolio to social media, as many do, we decided to bring a bit of that social interactivity directly into our custom website. I am firmly convinced that in today's world, designers shouldn't just discuss their craft among peers (as happened in the 20th century); they should explain it to the general public. Only then can graphic design become mainstream culture, just like cinema, theater, or literature.

So, here are twenty years of design projects—crafted first by myself, and later with a team of brilliant creatives—twenty years of books, exhibition catalogs, newspapers, and magazines. Today we are a team of five; I thank them and embrace them: Florinda Giannino, Paola Sasso, Nicoletta Valentini, and the imaginative and fundamental Mauro Abbattista (the core idea for the website was his).